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GAZA CITY, Sept 21: The Palestinian leadership called on all factions to halt their attacks against civilians inside Israel in a statement released here on Saturday as Yasser Arafat was under Israeli siege in his West Bank headquarters.
“The Palestinian leadership is opposed to all attacks against civilians, be they Israelis or Palestinians. It is today reiterating this position of principle and calls on all Palestinian forces to halt armed attacks against civilians on Israeli territory.”
“We are ready for peace but not for capitulation, and we will not give up Jerusalem or a grain of our soil which are guaranteed to us by international law,” Arafat said in the statement issued by the official Palestinian news agency WAFA.
The statement followed back-to-back suicide attacks which killed nine people, including the bombers, on Wednesday and Thursday, prompting the renewed Israeli siege of Arafat’s Ramallah headquarters.
The bombings were claimed by Hamas and Islamic Jihad but Israel blamed the Palestinian leader’s “inaction”.
The leadership statement said Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was using attacks by armed Palestinian groups as a “pretext to repress our people and incite Israeli and world opinion against the Palestinian cause.”
Israeli troops moved into Arafat’s compound late Thursday and have systematically demolished all the buildings inside except the Palestinian leader’s own offices.
Arafat has also in the past called for them to end, but Hamas and Islamic Jihad have rejected his appeals and sworn to continue their fight.
Saturday’s statement added that “peace and security are possible for the Israelis but they will never be achieved by military force.”
VISIT TO ARAFAT DENIED: Israeli Defence Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer rejected a request from Arafat’s number two, Mahmud Abbas, to visit the Palestinian leader in his besieged offices, officials said on Saturday.
Foreign Minister Shimon Peres rejected a similar request from senior negotiator Saeb Erakat, the official added.
The Palestinians had requested permission for the meetings “to discuss how to put an end to this escalation,” the official said.
EVACUATION ORDERED: Israeli troops on Saturday called on everyone inside Yasser Arafat’s besieged headquarters here to evacuate the building immediately as there was going to be a “huge explosion,” an AFP correspondent at the scene said.
Meanwhile, Israeli army chipped away at the main symbol of Arafat’s power on Saturday, using armoured bulldozers and other mechanized equipment to turn his presidential compound into a wasteland.
An Israeli tank shell hit the floor above the Palestinian leader’s private offices on Friday night, showering him with dust and shattering windows, to press home a demand he hand over 20 wanted militants.—Agencies
